India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in France pitched for India’s ambitious policy, Bharat Innovates, under viksit Bharat 2047 plan. Twelve years ago, when the Government of India launched the Make in India campaign in 2014, the objective was straightforward. India wanted to become a major manufacturing destination. The country sought investment, factories, jobs, exports, and a stronger industrial base. At the time, the slogan reflected India’s economic reality. Millions of young people were entering the workforce every year, and policymakers believed that manufacturing could absorb a large share of them. Now a policy shift, Bharat Innovatesis about to shape India future ambition.The shift may appear subtle, but it points to a larger change in how India sees its future. Manufacturing remains important, but India is now trying to project itself as a country that can create technology, develop ideas, build intellectual property, and contribute solutions to global problems. The emphasis is gradually moving from producing goods designed elsewhere to designing and developing products at home. This change did not happen overnight.
Over the last two decades, India’s economy has undergone a remarkable transformation. The country that was once known primarily for information technology services now hosts one of the world’s largest startup ecosystems. India has more than 1.5 lakh recognised startups and has produced over a hundred unicorns. Digital payments, financial technology, healthcare technology, educational technology, renewable energy, and space innovation have become part of the country’s economic vocabulary. Perhaps the most striking example is the Unified Payments Interface, better known as UPI. Every month, billions of digital transactions take place through a platform that has attracted attention from governments and institutions around the world. India is no longer merely importing technology. In some sectors, it is exporting models that other countries are studying and adapting.
The space sector tells a similar story. A few years ago, space exploration in India was almost entirely associated with a government agency. Today, private startups are developing launch vehicles, satellites, and space-based services. Yet Bharat Innovates is not simply about celebrating a few success stories. It represents an attempt to answer a larger question, what should be India’s place in the global economy during the next twenty-five years? For much of modern history, economic power depended on land, minerals, factories, and industrial output. Today, ideas often generate more value than raw materials. The world’s most valuable companies are frequently those that own patents, algorithms, software platforms, and intellectual property.
Increasingly, the greatest rewards go not to those who manufacture products but to those who imagine, design, and develop them. This reality explains why countries are investing heavily in research, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, semiconductors, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing. Nations are competing not only for markets but also for innovation leadership. India understandably wants a place in this competition. However, one question naturally arises. If Bharat Innovates is now being promoted as India’s next economic vision, does that mean Make in India was the wrong pitch. The answer is no.In many ways, Bharat Innovates is possible only because Make in India came first. When Make in India was launched, India faced a different challenge. The country needed manufacturing capacity, industrial investment, stronger infrastructure, and millions of jobs. It wanted to become part of global supply chains and reduce dependence on imports.
“Make in India- focused on global manufacturing; “Bharat Innovates” focuses on leading global innovation. While fostering the talent required to imagine the future is a harder challenge, successfully creating these conditions will be vastly more transformative for India and the world.”
The campaign reflected those priorities. Over the past decade, India expanded highways, freight corridors, ports, airports, digital infrastructure, and industrial networks. Electronics manufacturing grew significantly. Mobile phone production increased dramatically. Foreign investment entered sectors that had long relied on imported products. The transformation may not have matched every expectation, but it helped create foundations that did not exist earlier.Yet manufacturing alone cannot be the final destination.
Consider a smartphone. The factory that assembles it earns only a fraction of the total value. The larger share often goes to those who design the chips, write the software, own the patents, develop the operating system, and control the technology ecosystem. Manufacturing creates value, but innovation creates even greater value.This is why Bharat Innovates should be seen not as a replacement for Make in India but as its logical next step.
The first phase focused on building products in India. The second seeks to ensure that those products are increasingly conceived, designed, patented, and developed in India as well.The choice is not between manufacturing and innovation. Successful economies combine both. Factories create jobs and exports. Innovation creates intellectual property and technological leadership. One strengthens the other.
A factory without innovation eventually struggles to remain competitive. An innovation ecosystem without manufacturing often struggles to scale. Sustainable economic strength emerges when a country can imagine, design, manufacture, and export.That should be India’s long-term ambition, not merely Made in India but Invented and Made in India.
This challenge becomes even more visible in regions such as Jammu and Kashmir.There is no shortage of talent in Kashmir. Every year, students from the region secure admissions to prestigious global institutions and perform exceptionally in competitive examinations. Yet innovation ecosystems remain limited. Research infrastructure is modest, startup networks are still evolving, and opportunities for collaboration between academia and industry remain insufficient.As a result, many talented young people leave in search of opportunities elsewhere. In recent years, a hope has taken a shape at design innovation centre (DIC), IUST, Kashmir. Its sole aim is innovation and design, more so for local needs. Government must invest more in this centre to realize the full potential of youth of Jammu and Kashmir.
Need Of The Hour: If Bharat Innovates is to become a genuine national movement rather than an urban slogan, it must include places beyond India’s major metropolitan centres. Innovation should not belong only to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, or Delhi. It must also reach districts, towns, and villages where talent exists but opportunities remain scarce.There is another dimension that deserves attention.
Innovation begins long before university. It starts in schools. Unfortunately, much of India’s education system continues to reward memorisation more than curiosity. Students often learn how to reproduce answers rather than ask questions. Examinations frequently measure recall instead of creativity.
Countries that lead in innovation encourage independent thinking from an early age. Students are taught to experiment, challenge assumptions, and learn from failure. Such habits are essential for scientific discovery and technological advancement.
Tailpiece: Make in India asked the world to build in India.Bharat Innovates asks the world to imagine the future with India.The second task is more difficult. But if India can create the conditions that allow talent to flourish, it may also prove far more transformative.
(The author a research scholar is a freelancer. The views, opinions and conclusions expressed in this article are those of the author and aren’t necessarily in accord with the views of “Kashmir Horizon”)
